Avery State Competition

Avery competed in her first State Meet this past weekend. She did FABULOUS!! She placed 1st in her division on the bars and 2nd on floor which helped her to place 2nd in overall! We are so proud and just love to watch her do what she loves.



Morgan came along for the 3 hour drive there and back and the 2 hours sitting at the meet just to support her sister and keep her company. Awww, how sweet! However, she refused to let me take any pictures of her. That's ok, I am just posting this one anyway!



Here is a video of her on the bars!

And, here she is on floor!

Kid Christmas Party!

This year my kids wanted to throw a party for all the kids in our neighborhood. We painted sun-catchers, made Holiday door hangers decorated cookies and ate "North Pole" cupcakes. The kids all had a blast, made a mess and ate more sugar than anyone should!

Decorating the Tree

Last week we picked out our Christmas tree and decorated. Cory was able to take a day off and we spent one complete afternoon doing the decorating tradition. In our family, you just can't decorate a tree without junk food sitting around to pick at all afternoon. We had fun and it sure does get easier to do this kind of thing as our kids get older. I don't have to stress about the ornaments breaking or stepping on lights or being electricuted. I also have given up control and just let my kids do most of the lighting and hanging of ornaments. It may not be perfect but they have so much more fun!





There was a little bit of a war between Cory and Sydney this year... apparently they both thought "their" ornament should be the highest on the tree. Guess who won? I'll give you a hint... the taller one :) As you can see, my kids can hardly wait for Christmas time. Before we even had a tree, all those presents you see were already wrapped and tagged. And, those are just the ones that they have bought. I love to see them get excited about what they want to give instead of what they want to get.

Camping

We had our first family camping trip last weekend with some friends. It was a quick trip for us because we didn't get there until Saturday morning and left first thing Sunday morning. But, we did have lots of fun and so did the kids. Jordan has been begging to go since I keep going on camping trips with my Girl Scout troop. I have already mapped out several dates to go again in the New Year.
This time, we decided to bring bikes for the kids. They loved it and rode all around the campground.


How many coolers does it take to feed 5 families?

Nothing quite like sitting around the fire with friends and chillin'


This is how Sydney and Allison attempted to keep the smoke out of their face... and our little scorpion friend that the kids found in a pinecone they collected from the ground! Ewww!

GS Camping Trip

Last weekend, I took my Girl Scout Troop camping for the weekend. We had a great time and here are some of the highlights...
The girls cooked all meals and started the fires themselves. For breakfast we made egg muffin sandwiches. We cooked the eggs in muffin tins, toasted the english muffins on the grill and added some cheese.


This is the finished product... They were actually very good!


They also each took turns on a team that was the Hostess for our meals and they set the table and decorated with nature :)


Each girl also took a turn on the "clean up" crew. They all worked hard and did wonderful!


Reading in the cabin... and some crafts for charities.


Here are a group of girls starting the fire in the fire pit.


You always have to be ready to face one of these yucky guys. They have huge webs and they are the size of my hand!

We also did a geo caching hunt and had to search in some strange places for those little boxes.




It was a fun weekend... The weather was perfect.... Can't wait to do it again!